Javier Palummo Lantes Becomes Special Rapporteur of the IACHR

September 1, 2023

Washington, D.C. – Javier Palummo Lantes became on September 1, 2023, the Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). His recruitment for the position had been announced on July 21, 2023.

Palummo Lantes, a Uruguayan national, is a human rights expert who is currently the Vice-President of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council. In the past, he also worked as head of research and information management in Mercosur's Institute of Public Policies on Human Rights (IPPDH). With doctorates in Human Rights and in Law and Social Sciences, he has more than 20 years' professional experience in human rights, public sector management, public policies for social development, and children's and women's rights. He has worked in academia, civil society, government, and international organizations.

The recruitment process was in keeping with Article 15 of the IACHR's Rules of Procedure, the criteria established in the call for expressions of interest published on February 18, 2023, and the regulatory standards of the Organization of American States (OAS). This was a broad, open, transparent, and participatory recruitment process that paid special attention to gender parity and to ensuring the representation of various regions in the Americas.

The new Special Rapporteur is the second person to hold this position since it was created, in 2014.

The IACHR thanks Soledad García Muñoz for her work over two mandates as the IACHR's first Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights. The Commission recognizes her crucial efforts to consolidate the Special Rapporteurship over this period.

A principal, autonomous body of the OAS, the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 210/23

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